Social workers use ethical, culturally informed, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive approaches in conducting research and building knowledge. Social workers use research to inform their practice decision making and articulate how their practice experience informs research and evaluation decisions. Social workers critically evaluate and critique current, empirically sound research to inform decisions pertaining to practice, policy, and programs. Social workers understand the inherent bias in research and evaluate design, analysis, and interpretation using an anti-racist and anti-oppressive perspective. Social workers know how to access, critique, and synthesize the current literature to develop appropriate research questions and hypotheses. Social workers demonstrate knowledge and skills regarding qualitative and quantitative research methods and analysis, and they interpret data derived from these methods. Social workers demonstrate knowledge about methods to assess reliability and validity in social work research. Social workers can articulate and share research findings in ways that are usable to a variety of clients and constituencies. Social workers understand the value of evidence derived from interprofessional and diverse research methods, approaches, and sources.
Social workers:
apply research findings to inform and improve practice, policy, and programs; and
identify ethical, culturally informed, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive strategies that address inherent biases for use in quantitative and qualitative research methods to advance the purposes of social work.
Students will use practice experience and theory to inform their process of scientific inquiry as they apply critical thinking skills to engage in a literature review analysis of research findings about ethical, culturally informed, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive evidence-based practice with their chosen client population and topic. Students will use this research evidence to make recommendations for improved practice, policy and service delivery that addresses inherent biases.
Students will identify a topic for study, review at least six peer-reviewed scholarly social work articles that provide evidence about the topic, and write a literature review based on the articles. Using the information obtained in the review, students will then identify a culturally appropriate evidence-based intervention for the selected target problem. The directions below detail the critical elements to be addressed.
Required Assignment Headings (These are all main sections and would be considered first level headings per APA)
Title (followed by introductory paragraph)
Problem Identification
Literature Review
Analysis of Literature
Conclusion
References
Preparation and Professional Writing (40 Points)
This 8-10 page paper (not including title page or references) requires a minimum of six scholarly sources (excluding websites)
Scholarly writing in the School of Social Work requires the accurate use of the most current APA Edition. Students must use Times New Roman 12-point font. An abstract is not required for this assignment. The paper should be double spaced and written in third person.
Professional papers include introductory and concluding paragraphs.
Submission requires a scholarly level of writing that includes cited research to back up assertions.
Problem Identification (1 page) (K) (15 points)
Identify a client population and topic (problem) that you are interested in learning more about and briefly discuss your interest in this area of social work practice.
Discuss the characteristics of the chosen client population. Include relevant statistics.
Describe the significance of the problem you have identified. What barriers and challenges does this population experience (marginalization, discrimination, power/privilege, classism, sexism and or social/economic injustice)?
Explain why evidence-based social work practice is important for addressing the complexities of this topic.
Literature Review (5-6 pages) (K) (90 points) Conduct a literature review using WNMU Miller Library. Locate at least six scholarly social work articles for the literature review. Address the following:
Are the articles quantitative or qualitative? What research designs were used? How large was the sample size? Summarize your findings.
What does the literature say about the causes and risk factors associated with this problem?
What culturally appropriate social work theories does the literature identify as useful to social work practitioners addressing this topic?
What do the research findings suggest as possible anti-racist and anti-oppressive interventions and programs to address or try to solve this problem? What specific evidence applies to practice, policy, and service delivery?
Analysis of Literature (2-3 pages) (S) (55 points) Using the findings from your literature review, identify one culturally appropriate intervention that has potential success with your targeted population and/or problem.
Translate the evidence reviewed to explain why this intervention has the potential to be successful in the context of this problem.
Based on findings from the literature review, analyze and explain why this intervention is ethical, culturally informed, anti-racist and anti-oppressive. What biases might be present in the research? What impact does this evidence-based intervention have on social work practice, policy and service delivery with the chosen population?
Discuss how this process has been helpful in developing your skills as a culturally sensitive researcher when utilizing research to inform practice.
